


No Lies

by kikibug13



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: First Love, Friends to Lovers, Love Confessions, M/M, Puppy Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-05-09
Packaged: 2017-12-10 22:33:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/790945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikibug13/pseuds/kikibug13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Is it wrong not to correct the people who assume he and Damian were a couple?</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Lies

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a lovely, lovely prompt, thank you!

"Go _away_ , carrot-top! We don't _want_ you here! You have your own room, go hide in it!"

"Oh, don't, Erica, or he'll tell on you to his _boy_ friend!"

"So what!"

"Well, he's rich, and beautiful, and kinda creepy when he really glares at you over Colin's head, doesn't he, pretty boy!"

"Still, like, what _ever_!"

"Or did he jilt you, Colin? He's not been around for a week, has he?"

"Damian would _never_ just leave like that! He's _busy_ , doing actual work, not like you two empty-headed... _geese_!"

"Oh, just _look_ at him. Never will jilt him! Feh!"

"Boooyfriends!" 

Was it bad, that Colin didn't argue with them? Maybe he should be, but he - he didn't want to. He didn't want it to be false, he didn't want it to be just mockery. And he knew they didn't even mean it too badly, either, Caroline was cranky because the nuns had chastised her and she considered herself too old for that, and Erica was simply always that contrary. 

But he - it wasn't just them. 

As the years had gone by, Damian had started showing up more and more often. He'd become less, uh, _shy_ wasn't the precise word, but bothered by the eyes on him in this setting and had started hanging out with Colin outside of costume sort-of officially, and that meant some time over at the orphanage. And some time at the Wayne Tower, but his sort-of friends here didn't know about that.

Apparently, they had begun fantasizing that Damian was taking him on hot dates. (Considering the _bikes_ , and the shared fights, and all the planning, and the video games that it had taken _so long_ for Colin to talk Damian into seeing the _cool_ ness of, and the humongous home entertainment system where they watched movies under Mr. Grayson's supervision, and the meals, gee, Mr. Pennyworth sure knew how to make a sandwich, and it only got better from there, well. Considering all of that, they weren't _technically_ too far away. Not made easier by the fact that Colin wasn't seeing anyone else, and he _knew_ nobody like that who actually took an interest in him and, yeah. Maybe some days in his mind those times were definitely dates.) It actually took him two _years_ from his first visit to the Wayne Tower (when they had been almost thirteen) to figure that out, and then he'd blushed so hard he thought his face might have gone redder than his hair. At least he'd kept a firm grip on Abuse. He'd gotten pretty good, by fifteen.

Now, a year later, he was no longer embarrassed. In fact, he liked it, being called boyfriends, with Damian. Who probably totally _would_ mind, because he was such a traditionalist in some ways that were really weird combined with his atheism, but wouldn't be mad at him, he didn't think. Maybe, on one of Damian's good days, he'd even be amused. On the not-so-good days... eh. Who knew? Colin didn't, but he was ready to face the risk, for the minute or two here or there where he could imagine.

After all, it's not like Damian wasn't the only person ever who understood, and didn't try to take from him. Or, well, he _did_ , but not like... making him less. Damian took what he pleased from absolutely everybody, and he'd actually worked on his charm enough that only a few people actually minded... and none would dare fight him over what he wanted. (Well, Colin thought Mr. Wayne did, about some things, and Mr. Drake-Wayne, too, about more things, but they didn't always win.) (Mr. Grayson and Miss Cain didn't argue. Damian just did what they wanted him to, eventually. Somehow.) Anyway. Damian didn't try to make him less, and he actually gave more than he took, didn't even realize he did that, and Colin had given up trying to point it out. 

Some things, Damian was just too stubborn to see. And Colin loved that about him, too. It was just... some things just felt right, and Damian being stubborn as hell was one of those, and the things he was stubborn about... some of those things, Colin really didn't mind. 

Some of them, he did. Like the fact that Damian Wayne, at sixteen, seemed completely oblivious to anyone and everyone who had a crush on him. It wasn't just Colin (okay, yes, the reason why he didn't argue with people calling him and Damian boyfriends was that he wanted it to be true, _what of it?_ ), it was all the girls in the parties or even when they wandered around the park or something. (They had gotten a stern talking about walking on their own in Gotham Park. It had been a little worth it, when one of them had brushed up against Damian on purpose and he'd made a face, and Colin had pointed out that she _had_ been hot, only to make Damian look back, thoughtfully, then shrug. So maybe there was some hope for Colin?) It was just really frustrating, not to know. 

And you couldn't just ask Damian Wayne out. Especially not when you were an orphaned guy who turned into a massive pile of muscle and Venom and said Damian Wayne was... well. Your only touch with bigger and better things. 

Also the one friend who hadn't left him. Or ever tried to stuff him into too small a space. After that cage when they first met, that is, but that had been Damian trying to protect him, so it was all right. Mostly because it had just been that one time. Also the one friend who was almost more violent than Colin himself, at times.

It would really not do to fuck that up.

But _was_ it bad to say that he hadn't? That it had worked out?

Was it bad that, when he had a bad dream (there was one where Damian was run through by a sword. Colin hated that. And one where Damian killed Mr. Grayson, and he knew Damian would hate _that_. And one where they'd never met each other, and one where he never left his mother's side, and one where his grandfather hadn't had to find a different body, and how come most his nightmares were about Damian freaking Wayne, anyway?), he woke up and got asked about his boyfriend, and he could actually answer that, sure, Damian would come by later, and then Damian actually _would_ , that smug smirk like stuck on his face, and Colin's heart actually _would_ flutter inside his chest?

Was it so bad to dream?

Colin shook his head, finishing straightening his room, and headed over to check on his 'cycle. 

... said 'cycle turned out to be, unexpectedly, pulled apart and carefully getting fiddled with, part by part. By the long, strong fingers of - that was the _not_ surprising part - the very same Damian Wayne. There was a cut on his cheek, and he was extremely focused and a bit thinner, and he was _there_!

"Damian!" The redhead actually ran - as himself, not the behemothic Abuse - over to where his, um, friend was squatting among fiddly parts that he knew exactly what to do with. "You didn't tell me when you were coming back! I would've, uh..."

"Washed the bike?"

"Yeah..."

"Wilkes, you're blushing."

"I'm just happy to see you, that's all. And wish I hadn't disappointed you."

"What? Nah, you didn't. You couldn't do that."

It was said... so off-handedly. And so certainly. Colin blinked a couple of times. " _Could_ not?"

The blue eyes that could be so, so hard, bore into him. And the answer was curiously delayed, and it made Colin's pulse thunder in his ears. "Not ever."

Colin swallowed, but, somehow, it felt like it was now or never. Probably never. "Not even if I told you I may have been letting people think something not really true, about you?"

"... what."

"Uh... never mind."

"Wilkes!" He had such an imperative way about him, Damian Wayne. Not that it worked on Colin, not that it ever had. But it made him warm inside, a bit, when he tried. "Just tell me. Not like there is much you can say that is worse than the truth."

"Hey, stop that. You made that truth no longer relevant _years_ ago!"

"But it--"

"I know. But you keep it no longer relevant."

An odd smile was quirking the corners of Damian's lips, unexpectedly. "Anyone told you you're fun when you get assertive?"

"No, they-- what?"

The silence stretched between them. This might have been the first time since they knew each other that Colin had heard Damian use, willingly, the word 'fun.' And he looked unrepentant, if anything! Like Colin would berate him...

"... I've been letting people think that you 'n'I are... you know. Boyfriends."

More silence. Colin was almost ready to _beg_ for Damian to say something, when the quiet - what quiet was left, inside Colin - was shattered by the quiet response.

"Are we?"

It took a very long conversation, a dinner, and four kisses before Colin's world stopped spinning. Well, slowed. (Damian said something about genetic perfection and therefore being a good kisser. Colin hit him on the head. It worked, for about two minutes.)

Colin Wilkes had thought about the possibility of his being happy about as likely as Damian getting a closer relationship with 'fun.' 

Guess they both had a lot to learn, didn't they?


End file.
